Verizon’s Nick Kelly opens own agency, Encore S&E

Verizon sponsorship chief Nick Kelly has left to start his own agency.

Encore Sports & Entertainment, based in midtown Manhattan, opens its doors today. The agency will only service brands, and offer broad consulting capabilities, including sponsorship strategy, negotiation, activation, and measurement. Encore will not sell properties.

Kelly, VP/Partnerships at Verizon since Feb. 2023 and an SBJ Forty Under 40 HOFer, said he made the determination to go out on his own early this year, but that it was “something I’d probably been thinking about for years.”

Further explaining the decision, Kelly said, “I’ve been fortunate to have success working for companies that lean into sports. Now I want to be dedicated, with a company of my own that focuses fully on sports and entertainment.”

Encore will open with clients in place, but Kelly said he could not yet reveal them. Prior to Verizon, Kelly spent 17 months with Tepper Sports & Entertainment, where he was president of MLS team Charlotte FC, and later CEO of the company which also owns the NFL Panthers. He spent the prior six years with A-B InBev, rising to head of U.S. Sports Marketing, and then VP/Partnerships, Beer Culture & Community.

No word yet on Kelly’s successor at Verizon, although it will be an external hire. His departure, along with the recent defection of Brad Ross from Coca-Cola to Bank of America, leaves two of the top jobs in sponsorship marketing at brands vacant.